Ants (?) with wings - large & small

[Tangawizi]

Termites swarm to breed. It's a natural part of the nest cycle, same as with ants. The majority of termites in the nest are sterile wingless females - workers or soldiers - and they will never develop the ability to grow wings and swarm no matter what happens to their nest. Swarms often occur after rains because warmth and humidity create good conditions to start a new nest.

The swarming termites are attracted to light. In my experience, ants don't usually start their swarm at night. Of course I am not so familiar with local ants. I did some more checking on the ants that have been swarming around here, and I am quite certain that the ones I saw all over Ajijic yesterday are leafcutter ants (genus Atta). They queens are considerably bigger than leafcutter workers.

It's possible termites are swarming now too, although I haven't seen them.

[bmh]

The very large ants are also attracted to light according to the woman who was gathering them as she looked for them around street lights and they were large amount of them on the street and cars where the street lights were. I Oaxaca the people told me that these large ants live in the corn fields but I am not sure if this is correct. I have not seen termites so far either just a couple of different ants. A few of the elongated ones fell on me last night so they are coming...unfortunately.

[KathyTX]

I have heard about them being eaten and it's definitely something I want to try!

[More Liana]

KathyTX, you should join us for comida at Nicos (Mexico City) today! We'll be eating chicatanas--and chapulines (grasshoppers), and maybe even some escamoles (ant eggs). And we're sure to have a shot of mezcal, served with orange slices and sal de gusano (a spicy salt made with ground dried chile de árbol, sea salt, and dried red maguey worms).

If you had told me 30 years ago that I would be eating insects today, I would have screamed with laughter. But not now! These are all really delicious.

[johanson]

Eating bugs? Never, Never, Never. You folks are a lot braver than I.

[holdrja]

Double ewww re eating them -- it's a cultural thing

Re what to do about the termites - I keep an eye out for sawdust near any wooden objects, if found then I saturate spray the wood with a strong insect spray. Haven't had a re-occurence. I'm sure others on this board will have a more scientific approach. NOB, I could smell the termites when I turned over some dirt that had them in it but down here I don't notice any smell?

Haven't seen anyone collecting ants here but last year we had children with bags going around collecting the grasshoppers, big grins on their faces as they told me "oh, they are great to eat!". Double yuk.

Haven't had the winged ants (yet) but we are getting the invasion of the Japanese beetles. Pinging and boinging off the screens as we try to sit in the living room and read at night. Crawling under the sliding screens and coming in the tracks of the doors, until we give up and turn off the lights. Have to sweep up the bodies in the morning. Ah, Mexico! Lots of insects without any killing frost -- I think it's a good tradeoff.

[More Liana]

Report back from yesterday's restaurant comida: they are still awaiting the arrival of their chicatanas. No salsa de chicatana yet, I was sorely disappointed because it is so incredibly delicious. There were maguey worms on the specials menu, but I passed. We did drink our mezcal with orange slices sprinkled with sal de gusano: worm salt--if you haven't tried it, don't knock it. The rest of the comida was marvelous! Our guests arrived at 1.30PM and we got home from the restaurant at nearly 8PM! Great day.

[satnrose]

Eating bugs? Never, Never, Never. You folks are a lot braver than I.

Never, agree. Whatever tastes I have managed to acquire at this stage of my life, should be enough.

[bmh]

Actually you are not missing a whole lot. We eat them as they are offered at any fiesta in Oaxaca and Chiapas but they are nothing to rave about . There lots of things I would rather eat.

Just like snails the taste is in the sauce, roasted insect by themselves are not a great treat.

[exHawaiian]

You can find little kids in the mornings when the huge "ants" (which do not bite) are out, gathering them on the "street of the trees".

The termites -- which are a gigantic problem in Hawai'i, will even come to your tv light, but here's what you can do :

Turn off all lights indoors and out and close the curtains if you must have the tv on.

Get a shallow shiny pan, like an aluminum pie pan, and fill it with 1'' or so of water

Take a lit candle and your pan waaaay outside.

Put the candle where it reflects into the water, and presto

the termites are attracted to the reflected light and fall into the water where they drown.

It really works. And you can justify sitting outdoors by candle light and sipping wine for a couple of hours.

They are only active for about 2 hours.